Mario Bravo-Lamas, April 20, 2025
Spirituality is a widely used term, both within and beyond religious contexts. Generally, it refers to the human longing for a transcendent reality and the attempt to find a deeper meaning in life. It stems from the conviction that human fulfillment lies in a spiritual dimension of existence that transcends the physical, connecting us to what is ultimate or supreme in life.
Both the definition and the methods of spirituality vary across religions, traditions, and individuals. For some, it is about relating to what they consider most important; for others, it is the path to a more positive or creative life; or a search for happiness that involves self-discovery, inner healing, or redemption—especially in the face of guilt.
Andrew Root, in The Church in an Age of Secular Mysticisms, identifies two dominant paths in contemporary spiritualities: inner discovery (self-centered) and self-overcoming through willpower.
In a similar line, Barry Jones, in Dwell, warns that self-centered spirituality can degenerate into narcissism, especially in cultures that fuel fantasies of grandeur. Following sociologist Philip Rieff, Jones notes that we live in the “triumph of the therapeutic.” Christopher Lasch, a disciple of Rieff, observed: “The contemporary climate is therapeutic, not religious. People today are not longing for personal salvation… but for the feeling, the momentary illusion of personal well-being, health, and psychic security.” Thus, personal well-being becomes both the measure and the goal of contemporary spirituality.
On the other hand, spiritualities centered on willpower and moral effort tend to degenerate into activism or legalism, leading to frustration when the expected changes don’t materialize. Both forms attempt to fill the void left by God’s absence but lack, according to Root, the transformative and enduring power of a truly God-centered spirituality.
Self-Centered Christian Spiritualities
Even when many spiritualities present themselves as God-centered, they are not always truly so. Often, they reproduce the same dynamics of self-centered spirituality. This tension is also present within Christianity, where spirituality has often been split between the vita contemplativa and the vita activa. Both expressions, while they may ease guilt or provide existential relief, do not necessarily imply a truly transformative relationship with God.
This aligns with the description offered by Christian Smith and Melinda Denton in Soul Searching (quoted by Todd Billings in The Word of God for the People of God) regarding religious spirituality in the United States:
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There is a God who created and orders the world and watches over human life.
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God wants us to be good, kind, and fair.
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The main goal of life is to be happy and feel good about oneself.
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God does not need to be particularly involved except when problems arise.
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Good people go to heaven when they die.
Billings observes that this vision does not mention sin, the need for Jesus Christ, or the action of the Holy Spirit. Faith is reduced to “being good” and seeking God only in emergencies. At its center is personal well-being, not the glory of God.
Eugene Peterson warns that spirituality runs the risk of becoming egocentric, treating God as an accessory to our experience. Jones summarizes it like this: “The quest for wholeness displaces the quest for God and love of neighbor.” It is a Christian spirituality that, like many others, can openly dispense with God or transform him into a secondary character serving the self.
Even the more “active” forms of Christian spirituality, in their attempt to resist contemporary culture, may fall into a kind of moralistic bubble, focused on external behavior or the frequency of religious activities. Here, prayer may be reduced to a tool for success or control, turning God into a “spiritual coach” serving our projects.
In both versions—the well-being version and the religious effort version—God is no longer the center, and the other or the community becomes irrelevant. This gives rise to a spirituality that does not teach how to deal with others, with unanswered prayers, with emotionless gatherings, or with our own and others’ failures. These are simplified forms of faith, obsessed with immediate results or with a perfection that cannot bear the weight of real life.
A God-Centered Spirituality
Christian spirituality should not simply be a program, a set of practices, or an individualistic quest for self-improvement. Ultimately, Christian spirituality is God’s work, not ours. It is caring about the “how” without considering the “why.” Spirituality should not be a department, but the totality of our spiritual journey and the Church’s life.
In contrast, Andrew Root proposes a spirituality that begins with submission to God: surrendering, confessing, emptying oneself to receive the action of the living God. It is a spirituality that acknowledges that the mystical enters the world through Jesus Christ, who calls each person by name.
Mark Maddix, in Spiritual Formation, affirms that Christian spirituality is the work of God’s grace through the Holy Spirit. It is the Spirit who awakens spiritual desire in us and leads us toward salvation. Once this relationship begins, we need to grow, be nurtured, and bear fruit in a life of devotion.
As Oswald Bayer says (quoted by Root): “Faith is not a theory, nor a practice of self-realization, but a passive righteousness… the work of God in us.” This faith is not meaningless passivity: it renews both thought and action, but always from the grace of God.
Spiritual Formation: Living in Christ
Christian spirituality is not an isolated event, but a process: spiritual formation. C.S. Lewis defined it as the transformation of people into “little Christs.” This transformation is the work of the Holy Spirit, who reveals Christ to us, guides us, and unites us with Him.
Spiritual formation centers on the transformation of the person into the image of Christ (Galatians 4:19). Maddix explains that this image is formed in relationship with God, in community, and is manifested in a Spirit-led lifestyle demonstrated through redemptive action toward the world.
It is not about externally imposed change, but about an inner work that shapes character and affects our actions. It is a real participation with God, requiring trust and obedience, but never resting solely on our own abilities. Nor is it mere contemplation: it is a daily walk in grace, in tune with the Spirit.
Christiform Spirituality
This spirituality, balanced between contemplation and action, between grace received and life offered, leads us to a Christiform existence. That is, a spirituality with its feet on the ground and its eyes on Christ—seeing the neighbor with compassion and acting in the world moved by love. As Root says: “The ordinary is infused with the mystical as I encounter something that is part of me, apart from me: the true otherness of God and of the neighbor.”
“This is how God’s love was revealed among us: God sent his one and only Son into the world so that we might live through him… God is love, and whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them” (1 John 4:9–16).
Discipleship: The Path of the Christiform Life
Christian spirituality and spiritual formation take concrete shape in discipleship. This is the path of the follower of Jesus: a path of imitation, transformation, and mission. In the New Testament, to be a disciple (mathētēs) meant to follow a teacher in order to adopt their way of life. Jesus called his disciples to follow him, learn from him, imitate him, and reproduce his life in the world (Matthew 4:19; John 13:15). This begins with the trust that he will receive us just as we are.
As Richard V. Peace notes in the Dictionary of Christian Spirituality, discipleship is not primarily a set of rules or a personal development program, but a living and ongoing relationship with Jesus Christ: a participation in his life, death, and resurrection (Galatians 2:20). To be a disciple is to be transformed into his image (Galatians 4:19), through the action of the Holy Spirit in community.
In this sense, discipleship is synonymous with spiritual formation. As Kevin Vanhoozer affirms in Hearers and Doers, reading Scripture theologically is not merely an informative act, but a formative one: it is the means by which God shapes his people. Scripture not only tells us what to believe, but how to live and participate in the drama of redemption. Discipleship is our response to the living Word, learning to interpret and embody God’s script.
E.K. Strawser and J.R. Woodward, in Centering Discipleship, emphasize that discipleship is a calling for everyone, not an option for a few. It is not a program, but a way of life: living in relationship with God, in community with others, and on mission for the world.
This involves both an internal and external dimension: internally, being formed into the character of Christ (theology, wisdom, mission); externally, reflecting that transformation in our relationships, vocation, and service. As Barry Jones would say, discipleship means living “in Christ, by the Spirit, toward the Father” and for the world.
Jesus defined discipleship in radical terms: “If anyone would come after me, let them deny themselves, take up their cross daily, and follow me” (Luke 9:23). This is not a superficial renunciation, but a deep reconfiguration of identity, desire, and life direction. It is dying to the autonomous self in order to live in Christ.
Vanhoozer describes this life as a theodramatic performance: a participation in God’s theater, where the church is the stage and every believer plays the role of Christ—not out of obligation, but out of love. “The church,” he says, “is the theater of the gospel.” Discipleship, then, is learning to act, speak, and live according to the mind and heart of Jesus in our concrete circumstances.
This also brings us to a communal and missional dimension. Discipleship is not individualistic. It is in community that we learn to follow Christ, to forgive, to serve, to worship, and to bear witness. And it is from the community that we are sent as witnesses of the Kingdom of God.
Holiness is lived in relationship with others. The church, therefore, is not a spiritual club or a place of religious consumption, but a community of Christ-shaped formation, of imitation of Christ, of shared discipleship.
Therefore, discipleship is also an embodied and sent spirituality. As Lesslie Newbigin said, the pastoral task is not simply to feed believers but to equip them to live their faith in every sphere of public life. Discipleship points to maturity in Christ, which is expressed in the capacity to live with faithfulness, wisdom, love, and justice in the world.
In the words of David Bosch, mission is born from the heart of God. Discipleship cannot be separated from this mission. Spiritual formation is not complete unless it forms people who are sent—people with hearts shaped by the gospel, capable of embodying God’s love in a world longing for redemption.
In summary, discipleship is the art of living as followers of Christ: receiving his grace, imitating his life, sharing his love, and participating in his mission. It is the embodiment of a living, formative, and transformative spirituality—centered on Christ, guided by the Spirit, and lived for the good of the world.
